TRACKING MILITARY & SPY SHIPS FROM HOME

  NP:   If he can find the ship or aircraft — using sites such as marinetraffic.com and flightradar24.com — that usually means it has turned on its transponder, a device that broadcasts location. Broadcasts to anyone who cares to pay attention — including potential military adversaries.
   And yet, navies like Canada’s, citing security concerns, rarely divulge that information themselves, even to the families of sailors in far-flung locations, Watkins notes.
   “While DND doesn’t put out a press release saying, ‘Today a Canadian ship moved through the Bosphorus Straits into the Black Sea,’ the Russians know, the Iranians know, the Chinese know. Everybody knows, except the Canadian public,” he said. “I don’t really know what the idea of that is … other than hiding what they do.”
   A Canadian Forces spokesman did not comment directly on Watkins’ work, but said the military is open and transparent about its members’ activities, “with strict consideration for operational security.”